Telangana reels under harsh heat wave conditions; mercury touches 46 degree celsius at Ramagundam, Nalgonda

Hyderabad: Heat wave conditions are likely to prevail at a few places in all the districts of Telangana for next three days starting Saturday.

There is no “large” change in maximum temperatures in Telangana during the last 24 hours, a bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The temperatures were above normal at one or two places while the highest maximum temperature of 46 degree celsius was recorded at Ramagundam and Nalgonda, it said.

According to a senior official of the State Disaster Management, as many as 167 people died reportedly due to heat wave related problems since 1 April this year.

However, these casualties are yet to be recognised as ‘heatwave deaths’.

Three-member government committees, consisting of a tehsildar, a police sub-inspector and a civil Surgeon, in each mandal (administrative unit) will have to confirm that these deaths were due to heatwave.

“These (167) deaths (till date) should be confirmed by the committees as heatwave deaths. Then only it can be recognised as heatwave deaths and financial assistance will be sanctioned accordingly.

“All the deaths are currently under scrutiny. No death has been confirmed as a heatwave death as yet,” the official told PTI on Friday on the condition of anonymity.

Telangana has been experiencing severe heatwave for the past few days with temperatures crossing the 40 degree-mark in most of the places.

According to the Meteorological Department, heatwave conditions are likely to prevail in isolated places of Telangana during the next five days.

Also, the weather will be dry all over the state, it said.

Temperatures rose in a few places over Telangana since Thursday and were above normal at one or two places in the state.

Bhadrachalam, Ramagundam and Nalgonda were the hottest places in the state with each recording maximum temperature of 46 degrees Celsius, it said.